When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. OurPrivacy Noticeexplains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.

A navy diver from Widnes was part of a team who had the dangerous job of destroying unexploded bombs left under the sea off the north-western tip of Scotland.

Stephen Kenrick, a member of the Northern Diving Group based at Faslane, spent a fortnight hunting down high explosives which pepper the seabed.

They were dropped near to a rocky uninhabited island, which is regularly used for target practice by both Royal Navy and RAF jets as it is indestructible and has a similar shape to an aircraft carrier.

Some of the 500 and 1,000lb bombs that are hurled at it are harmless practice weapons, but others are live. It is these which Stephen and the team were given the job of destroying.

Able Seaman (Diver) Stephen Kenrick, of Widnes, has become the first diver on his team to find 1,000 and 500lb bombs on the same day while clearing up unexploded bombs off the coast of Cape Wrath in Scotland

Spotters on shore report where the bombs fall so dive teams have a rough idea of where any unexploded ordnance might lie.

Most of the bombs land in a trough between the island and a reef.

Once located, a charge made up of four pounds of plastic explosive is placed on the bomb by a Royal Navy diver and a five-minute timer is set to give the divers plenty of time to retreat to a safe distance.

Stephen, 28, a navy diver, found two of four unexploded 1,000lb bombs, and the only 500lb bomb the steam were looking for during the two-week exercise.

Able Seaman (Diver) Stephen Kenrick, of Widnes, has become the first diver on his team to find 1,000 and 500lb bombs on the same day while clearing up unexploded bombs off the coast of Cape Wrath in Scotland

He said: “This is an annual operation the Northern Diving Group does - there are 1,000 bombs floating in the sea, some of which are live and could wash away and end up on a beach.

“The seabed is littered with bombs, mainly harmless practise ones, but there are live ones mixed in with them as well.

“It’s risky because the smallest thing could set it off. We don’t try to disarm them, we just blow them up in situ.

“It was my first trip up there and it was brilliant. It was also challenging because it is like diving in a washing machine - the tide, current, wind on the surface just pushes and pulls you.”

The Northern Diving Group, which is split into two units, covers a vast area that starts from the high water mark in Liverpool and stretches out to sea clockwise around the British Isles to Hull, encompassing Northern Ireland, the Scottish Western Isles, Shetland and the Orkneys.

They deal with items of hazardous historic ordnance, such as mines, that get washed ashore and pose a significant threat to international trade and the general public.